11 Investigates sports officials under attack

PITTSBURGH — A local referee was punched in the face at a fourth-grade basketball game.

A recent survey of officials says sportsmanship is only getting worse, and more than half have feared for their safety.

Chief Investigator Rick Earle, who umpires in his spare time, sat down with some sports officials to get their take.

Earle also spoke with the official who was assaulted.

Earle said he has had fans and coaches yell at him, but he’s never been threatened or assaulted since he started officiating about 7 years ago.

Earle discovered it’s happening across the country and officials said it’s getting worse.

From Ohio to Louisiana to Pittsburgh, sports officials are under attack now more than ever.

“I turned back around and he punched me. He punched me, right in the jaw,” said Marty Coyne, a longtime sports official.

Coyne was punched in the face while refereeing a fourth-grade basketball game at Shaler Elementary School in March.

Coyne, a longtime sports official, said a fan began harassing him over a call.

“He goes, ‘hey, I told you, you got to call that.’ I heard that one, so I blew the whistle and I went like this, I said, ‘You can’t talk to me like that.’ I said, ‘Something’s wrong with you, you’ve got to go, or this game’s over.’ He said, now with profanity, I’m not leaving. I said you’re leaving or this game’s over. I turned to the coaches and I said, if he doesn’t leave, this game’s over, and he punched me,” said Coyne.

The suspect took off before Shaler police arrived. .

Coyne finished the game but started feeling dizzy.

“When I was going down (Rt.,) 28, I couldn’t see the bridge on the left, the 40th street bridge, so I went right to Mercy Hospital, and they treated me for four to six hours because I’m a heart patient. They’re worried about swelling and things like that but I had a concussion,” said Coyne.

Police have charged a juvenile, a 17-year-old Shaler student, in the assault.

11 Investigates spoke with Coyne and 7 other veteran officials with more than 200 years combined experience working youth, high school and college games.

They’ve seen and heard it all.

“You can’t call that, you can’t see that, you can’t make that call,” said Jim Hobai Jr., describing some of the comments he’s heard from fans over the years.

Longtime official Ray Batko said that after a youth basketball game, a coach came over to him with his team and made disparaging remarks right in front of him and another official.

Batko said he couldn’t believe what the coach said.

“He goes, these were the worst officials I’ve ever seen in my life. He said I don’t know where they came from,” said Batko.

And Jim Hobai Senior relayed a story from another official about encounters with unruly fans.

“He said I didn’t know my mother had so many names,” said Hobai Senior.

And these officials said the behavior of parents, coaches and even players has gotten worse since the explosion of travel and AAU teams, where parents spend a lot of money and expectations are high.

“It’s hard for them to accept, I think, when their kid, or their child, happens to fail, they strike out, or they’re not getting close calls when they’re pitching. They’re being promised huge scholarships to division one schools, which doesn’t always happen, so that’s just another pressure on parents that shows up at the end of games,” said Rich Venezia.

Emotions boiled over at a high school basketball game between Uniontown and Meadville in March, when a fight broke out in the stands.

Seven fans, including teenagers, were charged with disorderly conduct.

“I mean, you’ve got to enforce these things. You have to set an example to a point. People got to realize if I do this, what’s going to happen,” said Venezia.

Since the early 90s, assaulting a sports official in Pennsylvania has been a first-degree misdemeanor.

“There’s a lot of times where the officials have to have a police escort to their cars,” said State Rep. (D) Anita Kulik, of Coraopolis.

Kulik, whose husband is a longtime high school football official, introduced legislation called Respect the Whistle.

It would create a separate offense for harassment of a sports official.

“We’d like to see sports officials elevated in the grand scheme of the crimes code because you cannot function without them,” said Kulik.

Many of the officials said they do it for the kids.

With the ranks dwindling, they said if they didn’t officiate, they’re not sure who would.

But if behaviors don’t change soon, these longtime officials are sounding the alarm, loud and clear.

They say it’s difficult to get younger officials interested in the games, and the behavior of fans and coaches is one of the main reasons.

“You get a young kid that wants to get into the field, and he says, I ain’t going to put up with that,” said Tim Bielewicz.

Several of the officials said they try to build a rapport with the coaches and players, especially in the youth and high school leagues. Oftentimes, they said, that will help to diffuse the situation when there’s a controversial call that doesn’t go their way.

As for Marty Coyne, who was punched in the face by a fan and suffered a concussion, he was back on the court a week later.

He said that wasn’t going to keep him out of the game.

“I enjoy it, it’s a workout and you get to see kids. When the little kids do a right-hand or left-hand lay-up, you say, ‘Man that’s great,’” said Coyne.

The officials said they don’t make a lot of money and, at times, they take a lot of grief, but they all said they are passionate about the games and love officiating, despite some of the troubles.

Some said they thought about quitting because of the rude and crude behaviors, but just couldn’t walk away from the games.

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